Here’s how you can get fit like Milind Soman

Fun fact: He hasn't hit the gym in 13 years

He’s known to your lady as the guy from Made In India, and to you as the 51-year-old dude dating a 23-year-old air hostess and basically living your dream. But who Milind Soman really is, is the man who completed the Ironman triathlon in 15 hours and 19 minutes and then went on to bag the title of Ultraman. He finished the 517.5 km race in 34 hours and 46 minutes. At age 51. Barefoot.

So, gentlemen, when Milind Soman is generous enough to bless you by revealing his fitness secrets, it would be in your best interests to sit up and listen. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Soman spoke at length about his journey from being a young, hot male model to being an older, hotter fitness promoter.

The ‘No Gym’ Rule

The secret to his ageless body? Turns out, he doesn’t go to the gym. Yes, you read that right; and while it would have been easier to believe him if he had claimed to drink from the Fountain of Eternal Youth in his backyard, Soman says that the gym just doesn’t work out for him. Since a gym workout focuses on different muscle groups in isolation, Soman feels that exercising within the four walls of one can only take you so far because you’re unable to work on your body as a whole. If you’re still (understandably) skeptical about his claims, you should know that he gave up going the gym at 38.

The Fitness Routine

It’s not as if Milind Soman’s body is a gift from the gods. Like with everything else, it needs work. He goes running at least 3-4 times a week. And what you see, really, is a body crafted to perfection after 15 years of running around… literally! Milind Soman told HT that on the days he isn’t running, he doesn’t do anything at all. Turns out, Milind Soman doesn’t believe in any kind of ritual or routine or anything like that. What he does believe is that ‘you need to be active all the time.’

And he started early. He was a national level swimming champ from the time he was nine and continued practicing the sport till 23. Though he did not proactively indulge in any other physical activities to maintain his fitness levels, he says that between the ages of 23 to 38 – a period where he said he “did nothing” – his weight remained the same.

The after-hours Routine

In a world where scrolling through your feeds until 1 am (a modest assumption) is the new norm, Soman told HT that he chooses to value his sleep more. “I generally sleep by 10:30-11 pm and wake up by 5 am,” . We’d ask him what in the world he does at 5am, but somehow are belts have been feeling unusually tight today.

The Diet

Milind Soman does not intake any form of refined sugar, and when he does indulge in sweet, it has to be made of honey or jaggery. Anything him chemicals will just not fly. Additionally, he does not eat “over processed” or packaged foods. “I don’t eat biscuits because it’s packaged,” he said. “I mean, why would I want to eat biscuits?”

Yes, Milind. Why, indeed.

Soman has clearly acquired the tastebuds of a monk. Not only does he have no want for any of your favourite foods, he also admits that he has eaten insects and would do so again for their protein content, if they were readily available.

Dismissing any queasiness you might be feeling, he suggested that some “60 per cent of the world’s population eats insects.” We’ll take his word for it.

Although he’s is widely regarded as the epitome of a male fitness in India, his journey to getting there hasn’t been quite as easy as he makes it out to be. For a decade between the ages of 28 and 38, he admits to having smoked up to 36 cigarettes in a day (tsk tsk). Though he got into the habit in his late 20s, well after most people do, it took him three years to kick the butt.

Even as most people would would have felt too set in their ways to quit smoking at 41, Soman believes that it is never too late to do what you really want to.

His mother is living proof of the same. She began trekking regularly and has been at it for fifteen years. These days, her son said, she does at least one trek a month. In case that wasn’t enough to make you re-examine your life’s choices already, on Mothers’ Day this year, 78-year-old Usha Soman did a plank for a whole minute and twenty seconds. So if you got on on your fore arms right now, how long would you last? Read the full interview here.